NRS Commentary Oct-Mar’94

National Newspapers Among the daily newspapers only the Times, Financial Times and Today achieved year-on-year increases in their readership figures for October to March 1994. The Times recorded the highest increase, with its Average Issue Readership figure up by 9.9% to 1,298,000. The Financial Times rose by 7.3% to 782,000 and Today rose by 6.3% to 1,797,000.

At the other end of the scale the Guardian recorded the greatest fall in readership, down by 12.0% year-on-year to 1,290,000. The newspaper’s readership is now slightly below that of the Times. The Daily Mirror and Daily Star also experienced substantial falls, down by 11.2% to 6,962,000 and 10.0% to 3,544,000 respectively.

Among the Sunday newspapers only the Sunday Times increased its readership, up by 5.3% to 3,713,000, consolidating its position as the quality Sunday with highest readership. It now has more than double the readership of its nearest rival the Sunday Telegraph, whose AIR fell by 5.9% to 1,813,000.

General Weekly Magazines

Of the 6 general weekly magazines to have a readership of over 1 million, 4 are TV listings magazines. While they continue to dominate the general weeklies market only What’s on TV achieved a year-on-year increase in its readership figure, up by 16.6% to 3,556,000. The Radio Times, which has the highest AIR of the general weeklies, fell by 7.8% to 5,239,000.

Top 6 General Weeklies

New Scientist achieved one of the highest readership increases in the general weekly category, up by 18.3% to 465,000. The greatest falls were recorded by motoring titles. Autocar and Motor fell 23% to 404,000, Motorcycle News fell by 19.3% to 548,000 and Exchange and Mart fell by 18.9% to 1,362,000.

Women’s Weekly Magazines

IPC dominates the women’s weekly market with its 6 magazines taking a 45% share of the total readership in this group. However, Bauer claims the highest readership position with Take A Break’s latest AIR of 3,596,000 up by 7.6% year-on-year. Together the Bauer titles Take A Break and Bella account for 27% of all readership in this group.

With the exception of Take A Break and Hello all the women’s weeklies lost readership against October to March 1993. Substantial losses were recorded by Me, down 20.6% to 974,000 and My Weekly, down 15.8% to 1,264,000.

General Monthly Magazines

Readers Digest, the leader in the general monthlies group, experienced a 4.1% fall in readership for October to March, dipping below the 6 million mark to 5,798,000.

Readership of motoring titles accounts for 19% of all readership in the general monthlies group. Within this market What Car has the highest readership, although its AIR was down by 1.5% to 2,021,000. It is followed by Classic Cars with a readership of 1,229,000, up by 2.3% year-on-year. The highest increase among the motoring titles was achieved by Cars and Car Conversions, up by 19.5% to 484,000. The greatest loss was recorded by Popular Classics, down by 23.8% to 401,000.

All the men’s monthly style magazines recorded substantial year-on-year increases in readership. Sky, the leader in this group, increased its AIR by 57.4 to 2,744,000, making it the second most read general monthly behind Readers Digest.

Women’s Monthly Magazines

There are 14 women’s monthly magazines with a readership of over 1 million and 2 with a readership above 2 million. As with the women’s weeklies the dominant publisher is IPC, it has 12 titles in this group amounting to 35% of the total readership of all women’s monthly titles. National Magazines, with 7 titles, accounts for 24% of all readership.

The 3 highest increases in this group were recorded by House Beautiful, Marie Claire and Harpers & Queen. House Beautiful rose by 38.6% to 938,000, Marie Claire rose by 21.8% to 1,061,000 and Harpers & Queen rose by 10.1% to 481,000.

At the other end of the scale the greatest falls were recorded by the Clothes Show, Catch and Annabel. The Clothes Show Magazine fell by 22.2% to 1,015,000, Catch fell by 30.0% to 175,000 and Annabel fell by 36.2% to 321,000.